In a set-up alarmingly similar to the first ten minutes of the 2004 rom com Wimbledon, Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a once promising tennis player, takes a job coaching at a snooty London tennis club.
There he meets and becomes friends with a well-to-do young man named Tom (Matthew Goode). Tom inevitably sets Chris up with his sweet, but boring sister Chloe (Emily Mortimer) and Tom is eventually drafted into their family business by the siblings' approving father (Brian Cox).
Chris and Chloe's relationship trucks along predictably and they get married, but Chris cannot let go of his obsession with Tom's fiancé, a beautiful American actress named Nola (Scarlett Johansson), with whom he spent one passionate afternoon&
With Match Point, it appears that the Woody Allen stigma may have finally been laid to rest. It has been his most successful film at the box office for many years and as a never-wavered, ever loyal fan of the filmmaker, I will admit to eagerly anticipating it.
While I was not disappointed in Match Point, it was not the film I was expecting. The last fifteen or so Allen films have all pretty much been comedies, or at least contained large amounts of his trademark humour. He hasn't really made a straight drama since 1988's Another Woman.
Match Point is a fine watch and I was never bored, but there is a notable absence of the writer-director's witticisms and humorous situations. Not necessarily a bad thing - I was just surprised.
But Match Point isn't another Bergman-emulating drama from Allen - it hovers somewhere between a drama and a thriller, and affects the balance delicately. Without ever really conforming completely to the conventions of either genre, it succeeds as both.
Elements of Woody Allen shine through, but, interestingly for a director whose style is so identifiable, you wouldn't necessarily pick it as one of his films if you didn't know going in. Still, Allen excels at portraying the concerns of the privileged and articulate and puts those skills to good use here.
Confounded expectations aside, Match Point is an extremely attractive watch that qualifies as one of Allen's most interesting films in years. Utilising a talented and luminous cast, Match Point does a quietly devastating job of highlighting certain uncomfortable truths while charting the fortunes of an opportunistic young man (Rhys Meyers).
In doing so, the film has a more pronounced theme than many of his other works - it's about the scarily prominent role luck plays in life, and the Rhys Meyers' character articulates this concern on screen. The moral concerns of this film are at the fore, where in other Allen films they might've been more of a subtext.
You can't help but recall his 1989 masterpiece Crimes and Misdemeanors, which has some thematic crossover with Match Point, but was also hilarious. I am still undecided as to whether an injection of humour would've enhanced or diluted Match Point. But either way, I was very happy with the finished product.
Johannsson is lustrous in her role, but perhaps a little understated. She looks amazing in the film, and it's not to see why she drives Chris cuckoo, but you can't help apply some of the characters failings to the performance. Which is unfair really. So yes, Scar Jo is great in this film.
Rhys Meyers is amusingly amoral, but it's nice to see that Allen hasn't turned him into a total sociopath - there is a trace of humanity in the character. It's a minor trace, but it's there.
Emily Mortimer and Matthew Goode are both effortlessly clueless and their conviction brings the world of the film to life. And the ever reliable Brian Cox gets to deliver a couple of the few zingers that made it into the film. James Nesbitt has fun with a small character role.
Maybe Match Point is Allen's most commercially successful film in years because it's the least Woody Allen-ish film he's made in a while. Or maybe it's the presence of Scarlett Johansson. Or maybe it's just because it's a ripper of a watch.
Whatever the case, you shouldn't be disappointed.
Highly recommended.
Dominic Corry
Match Point opens in cinemas on April 27th.
